Engine Valve Baffles??

bigvino · Aug 22, 2012

hey everyone, my friend selling some TFS twisted wedge heads and he told me, that i needed taller valve covers ( mind you im "wet behind the ears" when dealing with the internals of an engine) im searching online and i have the option to select baffles or not? can someone please help me in explaining what are the benefits of baffles.

7991LXnSHO · Aug 22, 2012

Baffles keep oil out of the PVC system or breather. They must clear the rocker arms.

mob · Aug 22, 2012

Correct keeps oil from splashing up through the breather tube and being sucked into the throttle body, if you remove it I would recommend putting a small clear inline fuel filter on the breath line to catch the oil, you wont catch that much. If it turns black really fast it would be best to just get taller valve covers, I would try it first though.

bigvino · Aug 23, 2012

if i used a valve cover with no baffle, i would need to install an inline fuel filter??

7991LXnSHO · Aug 23, 2012

You will need something to separate the oil from the air if you have no baffle. If not, I hope you like fouled plugs and blue smoke from the exhaust pipes. You do not want it sucking oil into the intake. Some of us run a separator AND a baffle.

Some go old school and just use breathers that vent it into the engine bay with no PCV. With no baffle, that can make an oil mist and a messy engine in my opinion. The PCV system prevents this mess and the polution.

bigvino · Aug 23, 2012

Now let me this question.. What are the benefits of using a valve covers without the baffles?

7991LXnSHO · Aug 23, 2012

Clearance for valve train components, usually non-stock ones like a shaft mount system? Because you needed to use your own baffle to clear the tall roller rockers and studs?? Because you are planning on a crank case evacuation system to handle blow by? Anyone else know why on a Ford to buy valve covers without a baffle? I sure can not think of any other good reasons - it baffles me.

reldla1996 · Aug 23, 2012

The baffle is on the factory valve cover with the oil filler spout. The baffle will clear the TFS heads, but not roller rocker arms. I removed my baffle many years ago to clear a set of Crane Cobra 1.7 roller rockers on TFS heads, and have never experienced any issues by removing the baffle. I believe I also had to remove a small amount of the aluminum mounting tab inside the valve cover with a grinder. I still run the same factory valve covers with AFR heads with Crane Gold 1.7 roller rockers (with factory PCV set up).

mob · Aug 23, 2012

bigvino said:
Now let me this question.. What are the benefits of using a valve covers without the baffles?

It's really not rocket science, like we said before the purpose of the baffle is to keep oil from getting sucked into the intake. The only reason to remove the baffle would be for clearance issues so your rockers don't smack it when they come up. With aftermarket rockers clearance can get real close and the baffle sits a few cm lower than the top of the valve cover. It is likely you wont have any issues removing it, you don't HAVE to install an inline fuel filter, I was just saying I would recommend it because if you don't, you could be sucking oil in and never know it. I would rather have it there and if it stays clean then it doesn't hurt anything keeping it there. If it gets dirty quickly it means you are sucking up too much oil and should get valve covers with more clearance AND baffles.

mob · Aug 23, 2012

Here is a elementary school diagram of the valve cover in a cutaway view, the red line represents how the air travels through the valve covers into the t/b. You can see how the baffle will block oil from going up through the tube.

Gearbanger 101 · Aug 23, 2012

I actualy ground away a little bit of the mounting surface for my baffles on the inside of the cover, then made a new one out of a piece of tin. Worked fine for keeping oil out of the intake. The only drawback, was that I had to pour the oil into my engine extra slow when I did a change, as it wouldn't drain past the baffle, into the engine quickly enough.

bigvino · Aug 23, 2012

ahhhhh okay!

from6to8 · Jan 9, 2026

I know this is old but I wanted to mark this and have a tracker for potentially coming back to visit this as I am adding a V3 and going to run a screw in breather and I don't have a baffle in my 86-95 chrome valve covers with Ford racing 1.6 rockers.

I wonder if I can actually just run just like someone said earlier in this post off of the valve cover nipple put a fuel filter on it and just monitor and see if oil is going into that filter. I also wonder if that would prevent oil still from coming through the breather filter? I will have the OEM PCV setup as on another forum someone said they have ran that setup on all of their cars all of their blower cars and not had any issues. I'm just revisiting today on the other form with the guy and he has not got back to me yet on if he is running a baffle

gkomo · Jan 9, 2026

Does the oil filler breather have a 1 way check valve so air cannot be 'sucked' into the engine?

Where do you plan to terminate the oil fill neck nipple with fuel filter, same theory applies. Don't want air getting sucked back into the engine through that either.

My Novi1220SL kit basically does the oil fill neck with a fuel filter to the airbox (not ideal as many have stated on this forum, even though thats how the kit comes from Paxton). So my plan is to replace that setup with a catch can and reroute it to the inlet pipe of the S/C'r.

Noobz347 · Jan 9, 2026

If the car is Mass Air and the oil filler vent line runs to a portion of the inlet tract between the MAF and the intake then it [does not matter].

At idle, vacuum will pull air through that tube. That air has already been metered so, it's fine.

During boost, blow-by will be pushed [out] to the same location. Once again, it has already been metered so, it does not matter.

Baffles will help to keep oil out of the intake when blow-by is exiting through the oil filler vent.

This fuel filter thing I see folks talking about is rather new but is not at all necessary. Stick a small oil separator into this position instead or at least use one you can see through in order to know when it get clogged with oil.

from6to8 · Jan 10, 2026

gkomo said:
Does the oil filler breather have a 1 way check valve so air cannot be 'sucked' into the engine?

Where do you plan to terminate the oil fill neck nipple with fuel filter, same theory applies. Don't want air getting sucked back into the engine through that either.

My Novi1220SL kit basically does the oil fill neck with a fuel filter to the airbox (not ideal as many have stated on this forum, even though thats how the kit comes from Paxton). So my plan is to replace that setup with a catch can and reroute it to the inlet pipe of the S/C'r.

Just now seeing your reply and no that's not how that's not how that's not how I was going to run mine but right now I'm thinking about something else as I was going to do a baffle in my valve cover and I was going to make something but it's it's too tricky and I don't want it to take forever to fill the oil so I have an idea and I'm actually going to reply in my progress thread. So go over there and I'm going to reply there so I can keep a track of things.

from6to8 · Jan 10, 2026

Noobz347 said:
If the car is Mass Air and the oil filler vent line runs to a portion of the inlet tract between the MAF and the intake then it [does not matter].

At idle, vacuum will pull air through that tube. That air has already been metered so, it's fine.

During boost, blow-by will be pushed [out] to the same location. Once again, it has already been metered so, it does not matter.

Baffles will help to keep oil out of the intake when blow-by is exiting through the oil filler vent.

This fuel filter thing I see folks talking about is rather new but is not at all necessary. Stick a small oil separator into this position instead or at least use one you can see through in order to know when it get clogged with oil.

Hey just now seeing your reply as well I don't know why I did not get a notification. I'm going to reply or comment on my progress thread on some things that I did today with diagnosing and measurements and stuff I will tag both of you you and mgko

Engine Valve Baffles??

bigvino

Member

7991LXnSHO

wanna catch the space herp

mob

the guy who hits on his mom

bigvino

Member

7991LXnSHO

wanna catch the space herp

bigvino

Member

7991LXnSHO

wanna catch the space herp

reldla1996

Member

mob

the guy who hits on his mom

mob

the guy who hits on his mom

Gearbanger 101

Straight Outta Locash

bigvino

Member

from6to8

There's suction so I used that end O_O

gkomo

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

from6to8

There's suction so I used that end O_O

from6to8

There's suction so I used that end O_O

Similar threads

Engine Valve Baffles??

Member

wanna catch the space herp

the guy who hits on his mom

Member

wanna catch the space herp

Member

wanna catch the space herp

Member

the guy who hits on his mom

the guy who hits on his mom

Straight Outta Locash

Member

There's suction so I used that end O_O

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

There's suction so I used that end O_O

There's suction so I used that end O_O

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency